Modern integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing technologies allow circuits to be created using devices that continue to shrink in size. The circuit characteristics of smaller devices, however, can inhibit the development of a quality amplifier design. Achieving desired operating characteristics such as output impedance and high gain within an amplifier can be difficult as transistor devices decrease in size.
These difficulties can be exacerbated when designing a single-stage amplifier. When designing a single-stage amplifier, rather than relying upon multiple stages to achieve desired operating characteristics, operating characteristics such as impedance and gain must be achieved within a single amplification stage while contending with design issues relating to device size. Single-stage amplifiers do, however, have benefits. For example, single-stage amplifiers avoid compensation requirements introduced by multiple amplifier stages. In addition, single-stage amplifiers typically consume less die area than multistage amplifiers.